Michael Mitchell: Archive

This is not science! It's philosophy!

What if I said: "Science is the study of reality." And then you said: "What is reality?" That's philosophy. A scientist can't study something if he/she doesn't know what it is that he/she is studying. Philosophy answers these questions. Science can't.

No matter how much we study and learn about gender, gender itself will never change. If it could, then we would be learning about something else, even if we still refer to it as gender. And if shit just changed constantly into other shit, there'd be no science.

It's this absolutism of reality that the idea of gender being on a spectrum denies. If you think your perception of reality can change reality, then you will believe in gender fluidity, that you can merely wear some red lipstick or whatever and actually change your gender by some degree or what-the-fuck-ever, but if you think reality is absolute, that your perception must conform to reality or your perception is wrong, then you'll know your gender doesn't change just because you're wearing some red lipstick.

People who believe in gender fluidity are literally defining gender according to the reality they wish to be true, not according to reality as it is. Their definition is based on their perception of one's gender, not based on whatever in reality it refers to. That concept of gender is what a gender fluidity scientist would be studying, how men and women think and act for the sake of how they want to be perceived, not what men and women actually are. A man, for instance, can dress like a woman, even learn to speak and act like a woman. It's this act that they perceive as the reality. That's what they mean by "gender". That's what they think the word "gender" refers to in reality. One's biology is irrelevant to one's gender. Before they've done any "sciencing", they've already determined gender is fluid. That's not a scientific proof that gender is fluid. That's merely their personal philosophy.

No one would deny that a man can look and act like a woman or that a woman can look and act like a man. It's the idea that we can become whatever we choose to look and act like as long as we simply think we can become whatever we choose to look and act like that they actually believe and are promoting as science -- but as an appeal to authority, not as conformity to reality. Real science can't disprove the fantasy if the fantasy is the reality. Gender, to someone who believes in gender fluidity, refers to the fantasy, to the look and the act, not to reality, to one's biology regardless of how one looks and acts.

The contradiction, of course, is obvious. One can't choose to act like a man or a woman if one doesn't know what a man or a woman is. In other words, the real concept of gender based on biology must be formed and accepted, at least implicitly, before the fantasy concept of gender based on social constructs can be used to deny it -- just like the concept of reality must be formed and accepted before a scientist can choose to study anything -- but there's no scientific method or philosophical argument that can force anyone to accept reality over fantasy.

Really, it's concepts themselves that we don't understand. There's a difference between "man-ness" and "manliness". It's one thing to say this one particular man is more "manly" or "masculine" than this other particular man, but it's a completely different thing to say this one particular man is more "man" than this other particular man. "Man-ness" is the essential quality or characteristic that determines whether a human is a man or not. It's impossible to form the concept "manliness" without first forming the concept "man". That's the philosophical error the concept of gender fluidity is based on. The equivocation of the word "man" used in different contexts. "Manliness" is quantifiable, and can therefore be measured and arranged on a spectrum. "Man-ness" is not.

Which side in this (hilarious) controversial debate is not guilty of this error, though? One side is saying: "You're a man and you should act like it." And the other side is saying: "I'm not a man. I'm a woman." 🤣